Lugubrious

World of Light

@Dragonfly 9, @rush99999, how are things going? If you have any more questions about character creations, I'm happy to help.

World of Light

Sector 04, Veles

Level 6 Goldlewis (102/60) Level 4 Sandalphon (67/40)
Karin’s @Zoey Boey, Blazermate, Roland, and Susie’s @Archmage MC, Geralt and Zenkichi’s @Multi_Media_Man
Word Count: 3042

The moment Sandalphon officially dispersed the signal to retreat, Goldlewis got moving. After the beating he and the others had given Jena Apotheosis, he hadn’t the shadow of a doubt in his mind that Rufus Shinra could bring the madwoman’s sad story to an end, especially with the staggering firepower of that absurd helicopter in his corner. He hadn’t had the displeasure of getting to know the president’s son personally, but his reputation for ruthlessness preceded him, and at times outstripped even his father’s. This wasn’t someone who would hesitate to pull the trigger. No, as far as Goldlewis was concerned, the real problem -and the reason why the huge old veteran got moving like a man thirty years younger- would be if the reinforcements brought by Consul Y dispatched the fallen angel too quickly, allowing him to turn Alpha’s artillery toward the small fry that he’d certainly neither forgiven nor forgotten.

Still, that was marginally better than one other definite possibility: that the moment the chimeric monster died, every chunk of rubble and piece of building suspended in the pink-tinted night sky would come crashing down onto the chaos-stricken streets of Veles far, far below.

With the corrupted voice of Jena Apotheosis at his back, its furious and agonized cries resounding across all of Veles, Goldlewis made good time. To reach what remained of the Neuron helipad, he and the others needed to make their way down through the sprawling array of platforms suspended midair, each irregular in shape and moving -or spinning- at different rates. For Blazermate and Susie, blessed with the power of flight, this was only marginally easier, since for them the airborne chunks that worked as footholds for the others instead became flying obstacles that could blindside them if they weren’t careful. When Roland slipped up thanks to some stray munitions, Blazermate swerved to catch him, taking his life into her hands without a word of thanks. Sandalphon couldn’t fly without shapeshifting into Heavenly Wings, and while she could drift down at a leisurely pace thanks to Heavensent, time was a luxury she didn’t have. Instead she performed a delicate dance between freefalling for speed and gliding for safety and control, her supercomputer of a mind calculating the speed and trajectory of each hunk of debris on a potential collision course with her. Even Karin could expedite her descent with her grappling hook.

For Goldlewis, Geralt, and Zenkichi though, this descent was fraught with danger. One misstep could mean a fatal fall, and there was no guarantee Blazermate could save anyone else. One momentary lapse in awareness could result in an impact with a slab of concrete or a rogue girder. Then there was the ongoing battle, not just between Alpha and Apotheosis, but between the protolegions and other factions swept up in the mayhem as they continued to fight and kill one another. Combatants clashed, leaping between and falling from the platforms, while bullets and energy bolts whizzed through the air, paling in comparison to the munitions pumped out by the Shinra helicopter. The sky itself had become a warzone, and the Seekers were caught in the crossfire.

Goldlewis had just two things going for him: his double jump, which allowed him to change his double jump once per airtime, and his airdash, which halted all vertical momentum as he gathered himself on and then sprang off an orange glyph. That kept him going since it allowed him to fall much further than he should normally be able to, but it did not stop the chaos unfolding around him. At one point a protolegion leaped at him mid-jump, trying to swat him out of the sky with its huge cleaver of hardened chimeric flesh. He brought his coffin around to block the heavy slash, and the protolegion’s blade clanged against the coffin’s reinforced surface. Then the lid lifted off and a half-dozen bright blue arms extended to seize the monster for an airthrow, lifting it up and then casting it straight down to fall to its eventual death. Even then, an airdash barely brought Goldlewis close enough to his target to grab hold with one hand. Hauling himself up after that near-disaster was a herculean feat, and the veteran thanked his lucky stars that it wasn’t much farther to the helipad. He bulldozed his way past a gauntlet of angry Reunion fighters, breaking through their surprising strength with Wild Assault. Then he took one final jump, plummeted downward, then saved himself at the last second with an airdash that brought him within a stone’s throw of the chopper.

At the same time, Sandalphon ran into some trouble of her own. As she closed in on her destination, a stray shot from the rifle of a Veles guardsman raked across her midsection, the yellow ray grazing her ribs. “Ah.” She did not cry out, nor even wince, but the shock and pain of the surprise shot broke her concentration and sent her into freefall. Her coat and hair whipped in the wind as she tumbled out of control. By this point the floating field of debris had thinned out enough that she was lucky enough to not hit anything, but that altitude was a double-edged sword. Before she could right herself, she fell past the Neuron helipad, overshooting her destination. “Sandalphon!” Goldlewis ran to the edge, sliding to a stop and kneeling at the precipice to watch the archangel fall, only for her to disappear in an electronic blue flash. A similar burst of divine light went off behind him, and he turned to see Sandalphon stumble and almost collapse as she landed on the surface of the helipad, one hand clutching her ribs.

Though she wore a blank expression, her ruffled appearance, heavy breathing, and exclamation point-shaped eyes told Goldlewis everything he needed to know. “...That was less efficient than I hoped.”

Goldlewis gave a heavy sigh and went to help her toward the chopper. “Hey, at least you made good time,” he joked, holding up his wristwatch. “Let’s getcha outta here, partner.”

“You guys should probably hurry,” Giovanna called from the helicopter, her nonchalant manner at total odds with the situation. With the arrival of Zenkichi and Geralt, everyone had made it. Their ride was already good to go, which wasn’t immediately obvious since rather than rotors that roared and buffeted bystanders with wind, the police chopper featured a ring-shaped structure with a glowing light blue strip inside that churned the air like the teeth of a chainsaw as it span. Goldlewis and Sandalphon had to stoop to climb inside, where they found Penance waiting for them. Though no stranger to austerity, the Judge’s face looked even more severe than usual, and Giovanna could guess the reason. She felt bad, but she didn’t know what to say. At least what happened hadn’t been her fault. Then again, from what she’d seen of Roland so far, she didn’t expect any sympathies or regrets from him, if he even had any to give. They were both triggers, cold metal meant for nothing more than the execution of whatever will governed them. It was actually Sandalphon who stepped up–as instigator, the unfeeling archangel felt compelled to say something. To take responsibility.

“I’m sorry about Vigil,” she told the Judge. “The Consuls’ powers are truly fearsome. None of us were given a choice. Had I known, I would have freed you both once we joined forces.”

Penance remained stony-faced, but something like gratitude could be seen in the look she gave Sandalphon. “Vigil always believed that his number would come up sooner or later. He’s been ready for a long time. Still, even if it had to happen…” She looked down at her hands. In them she held a manilla folder, containing a number of handwritten documents on the construction of one Nuova Volsinii, as well as traditional Siracusan recipes. Then she reached up her hand and wiped her eye. “I would have wished that he didn’t die for nothing.”

A sudden flare of light flooded in through the glass of the chopper’s cockpit. The Seekers looked up to see Jena Apotheosis far above them, its second hand now demolished and its body riddled with cracks. The whole anomaly was wavering, the countless tons of airborne rubble poised to fall back to earth. “It’s time to go,” Goldlewis barked, pushing his way into the cockpit.

“You can fly, right old-timer?” Giovanna asked, crossing her arms as she followed him.

He took a seat and put on a headset, flicking a series of switches. “I didn’t spend all those years in the army for nothin’, Gi. This whirlibird’s a little techy for my tastes…” Not even bothering to try and hitch the flight harness, he pulled up on the tiller, and the helicopter began to rise. “But I reckon it ain’t anythin’ I can’t handle.”

Everyone braced themselves as the vehicle lifted off and began to pick up speed. Those in the back, either seated or standing and holding on for dear life, could watch the final notes of the battle with Jena Apotheosis playing out high in the sky. With the last of its power, the fallen angel unleashed a purple lightning storm, striking Alpha repeatedly. As it backpedaled away, a blue flash brought their attention to a tiny, distant figure, leaping off a floating slab. It was Hayato, and with his Sword Legion at his side, he hurtled toward Apotheosis through the storm. He flew in, inverting his x-baton in both hands, and both plunged their weapons into the captive’s neck. A final howl issued through the sky.

Then Alpha unleashed a barrage of eight missiles, and the fallen angel disappeared in a gigantic explosion.

The shockwave was enough to rattle the windows of Veles and shake the Seekers’ chopper in a fit of turbulence. “Hmph,” Goldlewis grunted, tightening his grip on the tiller as he worked to keep the vehicle under control. He risked a glance up at the Shinra helicopter for the briefest of moments, noting its massive searchlights. “That ain’t good. How’re we gonna shake it?”

“Fly low and between the buildings,” Sandalphon advised. “Use its size against it. They cannot risk shooting in the city if they don’t get a shot.”

“Roger. Sector 07, here we come.” Following her advice, Goldlewis hooked a right and piloted the chopper through a towering canyon of skyscrapers, flying beneath a technological archway plastered with corporate logos. Nearly clipping an unlit jetty that extended out into the air, he flew through the light of Biochoice Pharma, then past the opulent buddha of the Golden Sotori. For anyone who looked back, however, Alpha was in pursuit, gaining on its prey as it flew high above the cityscape. “Dammit.” When Goldlewis spotted a skyscraper block with a series of gigantic holes in it, he steered the helicopter inside, finally going where Shinra’s flying fortress couldn’t follow. The Seekers did not see their pursuer again, even as they left Veles behind, flew out of Midgar, and began to weave around its perimeter on the way back to Sector 07.

---

First the dark, angry clouds over Veles had been turned a violent pink by the advent of Jena Apotheosis. Then, when that giant helicopter sounded the monster’s death knell, the clouds lit up a fiery orange. Only now, as the ashes, embers, and wreckage scattered across the high-tech metropolis, did the darkness finally reclaim the skies over Sector 04.

Faust watched it all from the penthouse balcony across from Neuron Headquarters, where he’d ended up. The transformation of Reunion’s once-noble leader, her desperation-induced resignation to permanent monstrosity, and the climactic battle against what they had become. Although it was Shinra, and by extension Consul Y, who got the last laugh, those damnable Seekers had put in a lot of work. The choice to get them involved, Faust realized, was probably Jena’s most desperate of all. He knew his intervention in the fight could have single-handedly turned the tide in Jena’s favor, undoing every wound that the interlopers -and even Shinra- managed to inflict, but by that point he truly did not care any more. He’d respected, even believed in, Jena’s conviction to tear down Midgar’s corrupt and hopeless system, hoping and praying that life would truly get better for the poor and downtrodden, especially the infected. But what good was a better future if you weren’t around to see it? Thanks to her, the Seekers, and most of all the Consul, Mephisto would never get that chance. The one person who mattered more to him than anyone in the world, erased, without even ashes to mark that he’d ever been at all.

“Damn them,” the white-haired boy whispered, his throat hoarse and his cheeks wet with tears. “Damn them all…”

“Whew, what a lightshow, eh?” Faust turned, incensed, to glare at the turquoise demon leaning against the wall behind him. Only half-dressed in his organization’s iconic cherry-red armor, with his black cape knotted around his waist like a flannel shirt, Consul C held his arms behind his mop of messy gray hair as he smirked at the despairing healer. “Y’know, I should’ve brought a camera or something. First the debate last night, now this? If this whole antagonist shtick ever went bust, I bet I’d have a promising career in television.”

Faust grit his teeth, furious in his powerlessness. After a couple moments, he swallowed his emotions. “Why did you save me? There’s no point in this world for me anymore.”

C snapped and gave the boy a finger-gun. “Right? When you’ve lost everything, who cares about this stupid old world? Not me; I’m just here for the drama.” He slowly bared his teeth in a big, white grin. “Speaking of which. What if I were to tell you that this isn’t the end?”

Faust blinked, baffled. “What…are you talking about?”

“Oh, just some good old-fashioned deus ex machina,” C told him, adjusting his orange X-shaped glasses. Holding up his hands, he made his index fingers and thumbs into two Ls, then used them to outline the Shinra Building in the distance. “The stage has been set. All the players are in position. Well, almost all. Tomorrow morning I’m planning to throw some special someones a little party, and it just isn’t a party without a healer.”

“A healer?” Faust furrowed his brow in angry disbelief. “You want me to help you?”

C shrugged. “Au contraire. I want to help you…help yourself. Not to mention a couple friends. You’re not the only one who’s gone and lost everything, after all. The only difference is, they realized how to solve that little dilemma. That sometimes, the only way forward…”

The gunslinger could tell at a glance that he’d hooked the fish. That Faust was hanging on every word, on the slimmest possibility that he could somehow regain everything he’d lost, despite how impossible that seemed. After all, he had nothing left to lose.

“...Is back.”

Sector 07 - SOU Headquarters

Midna, Sakura, Pit, Karin, Blazermate, Roland, and Susie, Geralt and Zenkichi, Goldlewis, Giovanna, Sandalphon, Penance, and Luka

The Neuron helicopter full of Seekers got in late. By now, the analog wall clocks and digital desk clocks read quarter past ten, and a cloudy night had settled over Midgar like a heavy, downy comforter. Even the Extinction Belt had seemingly retreated to its typical heights, its oily, alien tinge and ominous scarlet aurora gone at last. Here in the sleepy neighborhoods and quiet business parks of Sector 07, the merciful peace was a welcome change of pace. For now at least, the Other deluge had dried up, the machines lay dormant out in the Valley of Ruin, the cascade in Quarantine Valley had been contained, and the giant monsters that assailed Midgar were nothing but memories, even if the scars remained.

Of course, the atmosphere here wasn’t nearly as nice as Split Mountain. The combination of nice temperature, crystal clear air, high altitude, celestial backdrop, sensation of freedom, and comfortable distance had been a heady, almost inebriating mixture. Like a strong drink, it lifted a great weight from the shoulders of the Suoh team that went there, leaving a pleasant, soothing buzz in its place. If only they could stay there forever. All too soon they had to return, and the weight of a cruel world came crashing back down on them, heavier than before.

Pit, Sakura, Midna, and Luka had been back for a while, refreshed by their visit to the mountain as they wound down and prepared for a good night’s sleep, waiting to hear from the others. Luka and Sakura got Brain Messages from the others with good news. After they made it to a Sumeragi family hideout safely, Lili and Raz had joined them as well, having found a couple fresh clues in the Otherlobe. They received a photo of the compact but fully-featured retreat, which showed them its living room, kitchen, and miniature gym that converted to and from a a dormitory thanks to fold-down cots in the walls. They could see Roxas and Raz tired but in one piece, and relate that fact to the others.

Those who, like Luka, chose to wait rather than sleep found their patience rewarded eventually when a helicopter finally touched down on the office building helipad. It wasn’t the cargobob that originally carried the Seekers to Midgar (or the Quarantine Valley team to Veles, for that matter), but it brought good tidings anyway. Sandalphon stepped out into the night air, straightening her back and stretching her legs for the first time in a while. Her neon green eyes scanned the Sector 07 cityscape for any sign of danger, but it looked like the Seekers were in the clear. “Good evening,” she told the welcome committee, nodding her head. Her unblinking gaze landed on Luka, separated from him by a height difference of over three feet. “We met very briefly while fleeing Vandelay Campus,” she recalled.

“That’s right,” Luka replied with a soft smile. “We were in a hurry, so I probably didn’t introduce myself. Luka Travers, at your service.”

The archangel nodded as she knelt down, her pupils turning into handshake symbols. “Sandalphon, at yours.”

In the Neuron chopper’s cockpit, Goldlewis took off his headset and heaved an enormous sigh. He hadn’t allowed himself to relax during the flight over, but now that the very last of his adrenaline had drained away and he could breathe easy, he could realize just how totally exhausted he was. “Lord almighty, I’m just about dead on my feet.” It took a lot of effort to rise from the pilot’s seat, but he managed to convince his weary bones somehow, then stagger out of the chopper and back onto solid ground. By now, everyone else had already exited onto the platform, so Goldlewis got the chance to see just about everyone together. He narrowed his eyes as he took a head count, giving Luka a questioning look. “We’re missin’ a couple boys. Where’d Raz and Roxas go?”

“A hideout in Suoh,” he answered promptly. “I’m afraid I can’t send you the photographic proof, since it’s in our heads and all, but they’re safe and sound.”

Goldlewis nodded, relieved. “Good deal.” Though happy to witness this, the sight of so many campaigners together came with a dose of melancholy too, as it reminded him of those who weren’t here. Benedict, Partitio, Raiden, Tora, Poppi, and now Vigil…whether split off or laid to rest, the Seekers hadn’t gotten through these past few days unscathed. Still, considering what they were up against, they’d done well. Better than too many of the veteran’s previous troops.

He didn’t notice Giovanna approaching until she clapped him on the shoulder. “Gettin’ sentimental, old man?”

Snorting, Goldlewis brushed her off good-naturedly, then trundled into the building. “Just tired, Gi. Dunno ‘bout y’all, but I’m fixin’ to head home.” An unfortunate realization brought another sigh to his lips. “Ugh…wish I could drive, but my damn truck’s way over yonder in Sector 06. Guess I’ll be moseyin’ home on foot.”

Next, Giovanna turned to Penance, her smile fading away. After disembarking, Penance had quietly walked to the edge of the helipad and stopped there, staring out across the peaceful streets and boroughs. “...Lavinia. You okay?”

The frown on Penance’s face did not waver. “Thank you all for bringing me this far. And for opening my eyes. There’s so much I remember…” She allowed her tired eyes to slide closed, so she could feel the gentle wind in her ears and tail. “And so much I now regret. I need a step away from it all.”

Goldlewis nodded, understanding completely. “Well, there oughta be some inns ‘round here, so take all the time you want. And if you need anythin’, just holler.” Penance did not reply, instead just standing there a while longer. Her dull brown hair flowed in the breeze, and her golden thorns gleamed in the glow of streetlights.

Once inside the office, Sandalphon set her sights on the big meeting table everyone used the first day. “If you don’t mind, I would like to make some calls. I’ve been receiving news, reports, and updates this whole time, but put them off during the mission. I now have quite the backlog.”

Gio waved her hand. “Sure, go nuts. Want a coffee or something?”

“I would be very grateful. Maximum strength please, and as much sugar as possible. If anyone needs me, please reach out. I am skilled at multithreading.” Amused by the unusual request, Gio went off to make Sandalphon’s wish a reality. Once the archangel gracefully seated herself, she conjured a whole array of different screens around her, loaded with mail, message systems, information readouts, video files, and more. She reached up and took both corded microphones from her halo at once, allowing both to dangle by her head as she typed, tapped, scrolled, watched, read, and replied, in many cases processing two or more conversations or topics at once. Throughout it all her expression never changed, her eyes never blinked, and her work never ceased.

Goldlewis shook his head. When was that poor woman going to get a break? He loosened his tie, then took off his suit jacket and flung it over the shoulder. “Night, y’all,” he said, heading for the hallway elevator.

Mercy Dreams - Solitary Confinement

Level 13 Ms Fortune (24/130)
The Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Ganondorf’s @Double, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey, Artorias and Osvalds’ @Dark Cloud
Word Count: 2015

Even as someone who typically refused to acknowledge her problems, Nadia had to admit, that was too close. As for how close, she really didn't want to think about it too much. The incredible regenerative abilities of the Life Gem were valuable beyond measure, a dyed-in-the-wool gimmick that most of her opponents couldn't possibly overcome before her unrelenting offensive pressure tore them down, but her run-in with those illuminators really went to show that no strategy was without counterplay. The power to block healing…now , more than a secret room full of corpses or a raging tiger, was scary.

At least now that the curse was gone, Nadia could heal back up with the Ripened Heart, leaving her none the worse for wear. She gave a sigh of relief, gave a very worried Chucho a big squeeze, and got moving, eager to make herself scarce before any more illuminators came along. For the second time the girl and her dog approached the openness of the prison’s central space, from which they heard the grating metal sound of moving chains. They arrived in time to see Primrose and Therion swing open the door of a large hanging cage one floor below and step out onto the fifth layer’s stone walkway, elevated above a pool of acid. Jesse and Ganondorf were there already, which meant a party of four set to face off against the hulking, abominable Jailers that guarded that layer’s cells.

“Yeesh, they're gonna fight there?” Nadia winced. With enemies that big and strong, battling in such a small space was going to be very dangerous. Even the floating FBC director would have to come down eventually. “They're gonna have to be acid-duous about not falling in.” Chucho gave her a confused look, like he didn't get the pun. Or like he didn't expect his owner to have such a loquacious vocabulary. “What? I know big words. I'm smart~”

Sectonia had worked her way down towards Nadia and the others, following their trail of carnage only to find that while some of her group was here, Ganondorf was below, duking it out with some of the jail creatures over a pit of acid. ”I doubt that acid will hurt the so-called ‘king of evil’, he's pretty sour himself.” Sectonia said, giving her own pun to the situation, more relieved that this wasn’t another mirror trick or something.

When the Sectonia showed up, Nadia gave her a curious look, and not just because that wasn't remotely a pun. From this close she could see the big bug’s fusion changes a lot better, but it also looked like she’d been blasted by some sort of magic. “Hey, Toni. Whatcha been up to?”

”Getting stuck in a mirror…” Sectonia said with a bit of annoyance. She was still sore after taking a chaos bolt to the abdomen. ”I suppose you’ve been faring better in that regard, seeing how cleared my path was..” Sectonia said, commenting on the mostly clear path she took to get here.

That made Nadia snicker. “We-he-hell, I wouldn't say that…stuck in a mirror, you said? I guess you got ‘imprismed’ then, right?” She giggled. Sectonia could only roll her eyes at that one.

Keeping up with the knight had been somewhat of a fruitful endeavor for Osvald, luckily their descent met with no obstacles that neither man couldn't handle, thanks to those that cleared the way for them. “More of these friends of yours I presume?” the knight responded by grunting, of course the question was rather self-explanatory, so the scholar simply nodded making his way behind Artorias.

Focused on putting one foot in front of the other, the knight barely had time to utter a word to the scholars question anyway, their encounter with the wraith Raziel stewed in the forefront of his mind.

Leaving him with an empty flask of Estus, the fight had given the Wolf Knight reason enough to be wary of further encounters. Artorias was almost relieved to see Nadia, almost.

“Salutations..” raising a hand in greeting, Artorias glanced next to him where the scholar stood adding quickly “Worry not, these are allies.” beside him the scholar gave the knight a sideways glance.

“Interesting.” was all Osvald said, his tone of voice sounding already bored. To him the feral looked no different from that of the tribals off to the far south of Solistra though her choice of clothes seemed quite exotic to the likes of Osvald. As for the other he would certainly be interested in examining, to Osvald the Queen looked no less like that of the other monsters that inhabited the land he came from.

Nadia glanced at him with her visible eyebrow raised. “...’Interesting’? Such a gentleman.” From what Artorias said, it seemed like this unfamiliar face might be a new ally, though he looked just as bedraggled and unhinged as the tiger woman. Dirty, disheveled, malnourished. A prisoner here too, probably. He'd suffered plenty and probably didn't need any lip from her. Rummaging in her pouches, she adopted a more concerned tone of voice. “You look beat to hell. Want some lemonade? It'll perk you right up.” She produced the refilled pitcher and offered it to Osvald to drink.

Osvald eyed the pitcher as a flash of recognition washed over his gruff face. Lemonade wasn't easy to come by, the cost to acquire the resources was exponential. Only people of higher status usually had such things, he never had drunk it himself before but always imagined his daughter would have enjoyed it had he…

The scholar nodded and dashed away his thoughts, something else in his expression though obscured behind a shaggy mane of hair betrayed indignation “Hmph, thanks.” his throat was quite parched, and his stomach ached sharply as if now the time he spent locked away had finally caught up to him.

“Hm, that is quite delicious.” he didn't waste time with manners, knocking back a mouthful of the sweet beverage “I am Osvald,” after wiping his face with the cuff of his sleeve he introduced himself “And I assume that you are one of these ‘Seekers’, what are you seeking exactly?”

Nadia was glad to see the mood of her new acquaintance lifted a little. His question pleased her a little less; she still didn't want to handle orientation, so she settled on the current objective. “Right now, it's these little mask pieces that big, bad bosses tend to keep hold of. So if you're any good at fighting, we can use a hand.” More help meant less work for her, after all.

Osvald furrowed his brow, though he was given something of a non-answer Nadia’s words arose plenty more questions. But the scholar sighed looking mildly annoyed, Osvald shrugged his shoulders “Hm, my magic should be of some use.”

”Perhaps we can see what it does. Although when the opportunity arises, you need to be made presentable.” Sectonia said to the newcomer.

The brawl above the acid pit had gotten started by that point, every bit as furious and perilous as Nadia expected. Still, despite the risky arena and the brutal might of the Jailers, she felt pretty confident that the others would prevail. Ganondorf was no slouch in the size or strength departments himself, Jesse could stay out of reach while perforating the monstrosities’ weak points from afar, and the Travelers had plenty of tricks up their sleeves, magical or otherwise. While happy to keep her distance and not add to the chaos, Nadia also didn't want any more illuminators sneaking up on her, so she decided to move in. She ran over toward the suspended cage that most of the others used to descend, then jumped and grabbed it in order to slide down to the fifth layer. The moment she set foot atop the cage, she leaped and airdashed over the acid from one suspended hook to another until she reached one of the layer’s alcoves, her snow-white hair streaming behind her. Acid might be a fluid, sure, but she wasn't about to try skating across its surface; that was a little too careless even for her. Once she reached the alcove she hunkered down to take a breather and watch the battle unfold, her hand never far from the grip of her bait launcher in case she needed to intervene.

As expected, though, the killer quartet had this fight in the bag. Things seemed iffy at first as the Seekers contended with both the burly abominations and the narrow confines of their hazardous surroundings, and the Jailers turned out to have volatile corpses in their corner too, but in the end there was only so much the dumb brutes could do. They were too straightforward to overpower their attackers before the heroes turned the tide with sharp wits and versatile toolkits. Case on point, both Jesse and Primrose flying up to go straight for the ‘heart’ with precise ranged attacks. Once it became clear that the Jailers were done for, Nadia stood up in her alcove, ready to make her move.

By the time the killing blow was struck, she was already in motion. She made a running jump and scared out over the acid pool, then grabbed a chain and used it to swing onto the central platform. As the second Jailer fell, a golden key adorned with a suitably macabre skull shape fell from its dissolving flesh. Ever the opportunist, Nadia darted in and snatched it before it even hit the ground.

“Nice going, fellas,” she grinned, one hand on her hip as she spun the key on one finger. Everyone could get a good look at her new appearance. “Thanks to you, those cage beasts sung their swan song, and they sure had bars, huh? You've earned yourselves a break.” With a final spin she caught the key in her hand as Sectonia, Artorias, and Osvald descended behind her. “How about we take this one?”

"No complaints here, believe me."

Nadia made a beeline for the big cell at one end of the bridge. Her objective was clear: the big black-and-gold vault lock. This thing’s gotta be worth a fortune. Once she turned the key in the golden lock, the heavy-duty mechanism series of clicks and whirs, until with a final slam the lock split in half and the doors swung inward, taking the key with them. Nadia figured that it could probably be used again, but her intuition told her that it would need to stay in place to keep the door open while the team dealt with whatever was inside.

After all, it wasn't just a cell on the other side of the door. Before the Seekers lay a large room with a vaulted ceiling veiled in darkness, with yard-thick classical columns extending up into the gloom. Scattered around a floor of dark soil blanketed by crisp, dead flowers lay trails of tiles like footpaths, lit by candelabras or bunches of candles, and the one in front of the newcomers extended straight toward a huge stone statue of a sitting woman in robes. Cradled in her lap and arms lay a monstrous bipedal creature, somewhere between man and tree, with knotted, gnarled flesh, limbs that terminated in plumes of branches, a loincloth, and a nightmarish head like the skull of a tremendous goat. It appeared to be sleeping.

As the team watched, however, it stirred fitfully. Stirred by the agony of the nails that pierced its chest and head, or by awful dreams. Suddenly it awoke, extracting itself from the hard, loveless arms where it had lain. It planted its feet, then seized the head of the statue and, shrieking, wrenched it off. Ten Piedad flung the head into the ground, shattering it into a hundred pieces, and slouched toward the Seekers to spill their blood.

World of Light

That makes sense, I think I'd wanna keep some form of it still, cuz even if it isn't a practical weakness it would be something he'd consciously avoid regardless. Would it be alright if I reworded that weakness and added one for his smoking habit, so it isn't just a "fake" weakness?

@TruthHurts22

Sure.

Heyo! I'm thinking of joining this RP as my Roblox avatar. I know from the spirit board that Robloxians are already present in the world, so have there been any events involving them over the past five years that I should keep in mind going into this?

@rush99999

Hey there and welcome, thanks for checking out this RP! We haven't done anything with Roblox really, there are just Robloxians as background characters in the world, so nothing in particular to be aware of. So your idea should be fine, I assume you envision your avatar with a certain personality and such?

World of Light

That application looks pretty good, however the whole smoking thing might be a bit more of a realistic weakness than the 'Nameless' thing since his reason for erasing his name in the World of Light is very much diminished.

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Lewa

Well, a fat lot of good that did. Lewa knew he probably shouldn’t have even tried to talk this fiercely proud warrior down. Instead of extinguishing his smoldering ire, the toa’s wind had just fanned the flames. It looked like his opponent would only let this fight end one way: with one of them on the ground. And it’s not going to be me. That thought propelled Lewa’s joints into action as he whipped up another whirlwind, galvanized to action all the faster by his foe’s sudden, outraged approach. This was it–the deciding moment. Lewa readied himself for the swing strike. He didn’t want to hurt anyone, this guy wasn’t going to have it any other way. Mustering his strength, he unleashed his cyclone, and the winds roared.

As it turned out, though, this roller coaster ride of surprises was far from over.

A dark blur interposed itself between the two combatants, not just stopping Varst in his tracks with the threat of a lethal swordblade, but also blowing apart Lewa’s whirlwind as if it were no more than a summer breeze. Already halfway back into a fighting stance, the toa paused, his eyes wide with astonishment. Confusion as well, seeing that this interloper shared an aesthetic style with the Raven Heralds, but opposed Varst while ignoring Lewa altogether. He wasn’t sure what to make of this. Was this person an ally? An enemy? Should he attack while her defenseless back was turned? Probably not. On one hand that sort of underhanded move just wasn’t his style, while on the other, the confidence that oozed from this woman’s every movement made him think that any attempt at capitalization might just be poking the Muaka.

So instead Lewa settled for a state of tense readiness, listening in silence as the exchange between the two helped paint for him the bigger picture. It sounded like this ‘Varst’ might be playing the role of an unruly subordinate, an impulsive captain going over the head of his general. For a moment it looked like might turn his anger on the interloper, but the spitfire quickly got snuffed out. Like a rogue Gukko Bird captured and returned to its roost to sulk. To be honest, Lewa didn’t mind this turn of events. The fight was over, and nobody had to die. Sure, someone who seemed much stronger than this already-troublesome glaivier had revealed herself, but could Lewa’s future be any more uncertain than it already was? At this point, new twists and turns might just as well be drops in the ocean now that the dam of his previous worldview had burst.

While issuing orders, the peacemaker turned to stare at Lewa. He really couldn’t fathom what she might be thinking; his mask probably made his resignation apparent enough. It wasn’t much longer until she left, retreating alongside all the Raven Heralds who remained. “Guess this is a win,” he muttered, shrugging, before he replaced his axe on his back. Considering the situation at hand, things had turned out to be much more simple than he would have thought. Regardless, with the battle over, he felt compelled to seek out the others. Lewa jogged through the town, searching for either allies or survivors, until he spotted the small organic known as the Witch Knight. “Good to see you well-alive!” he hailed her, waving. As he slowed to a stop, he looked around, scanning the ruined village. “But where are the others?”

Caravan: An Episodic Fantasy with Worldbuilding! [Always Accepting]

Gruyere Emmentaler Caerphilly Yarg

Despite the gnawing pits in their stomachs, the group who’d come to Gru for food didn’t seem too eager. If someone else offered them charity they might have descended upon their benefactor in a ravenous throng, pushing and shoving one another to take whatever they could as fast as possible, but when faced with Gru their mixed feelings were written plainly on their slovenly faces. With the manner of a circus barker he’d made himself look like a charlatan, and all of them were wondering whether or not they should bother with the terms and conditions of this shady-looking character instead of looking for handouts elsewhere. These people wanted cuisine, not contracts. Gru gave them a thin, knowing smile. They needed temptation.

“What’s this now, friends? I thought you were hungry? Oh, I know. How about a sample? I think…yes, yes. The camembert.” He snapped his fingers, and as the confused petitioners looked warily on, the Chuck Wagon started to rock back and forth. When he held up his key, Pepper jumped down from atop his head and took it, then recruited a handful of rats from his live collar. With them cradling her on their backs, they raced toward the wagon, climbed up its steps, then stacked themselves in a fuzzy multicolored tower to reach and unlock the door. Immediately it burst open, a miniature tide of rats surging out into the open. While the peasants recoiled, Gru didn’t move an inch. Instead he stood there with his arms crossed, patiently awaiting his delivery. “That’s it, over here, loves.” His pets came racing toward him carrying a handful of parcels, including a wooden stool and an entire table. Gru stood by, lending a hand as necessary, while his rats set up the table and then placed the stool behind it for him to sit upon, facing his potential customers.

When they handed him a round wooden box, the first hints of a strong aroma began to radiate outward. After opening the box, he gently listed out, set down, and unwrapped the delicate cheesecloth within to reveal a round disk a couple inches tall, sugary white in appearance and lined with creases of gray like the first powder snows of winter fallen upon the well-trod cobblestones of a busy city street. He held out one hand, palm expectantly upward, and the last troop of rats approached. These ones bore the strangest -and most dangerous- cargo of all, a cheese knife the size of a sword, boasting the familiar curve and double-pointed tip characteristic of its smaller brethren. With a lot of effort, the rats grouped up into a swelling mound that lifted the knife higher and higher until they could finally slide it into their master’s waiting grasp. “Thank you, lovelies. Such a talented bunch.” Gru took it in hand, produced a handkerchief from his jacket, and then used it to pinch the other end of the blade without risking any smudging from a direct touch. Now holding the knife like a guillotine, the cheesemonger made a single precise cut, front to back, to split the rind of the cheese wheel end to end. Then he set the knife down on the table and spread the halves of the cheese out so that everyone present could get a good view.

“Ah, here we are!” Gru took a deep breath, drinking in and relishing the rich, earthy smell of the camembert. “Now that’s the stuff! Nothing else like it on the face of the earth, no sir.” It was strong, too strong for some perhaps, but it was memorable, an odor that few would soon forget. No doubt it was already tickling these loggers’ taste buds and twisting their stomachs, and the cheese looked even better than it smelled. Unlike cheeses that featured a constant consistency throughout, camembert was soft, creamy, and melty, flowing out slightly from the rind now that it had been unleashed. Very light yellow in color, it looked like butter, never cracked or crumbly. Withdrawing a much smaller cheese knife from his person, he pulled a cloth sleeve from his belt and untied it to slide out a row of thin hardtack crackers, their surfaces pitted with the classic pinholes in the manner of distant constellations. “I keep some on me at all times,” he explained with a purposefully sheepish smile. “Never know when you’ll get a bit peckish, hm?” Perhaps these hungry fools would see in that statement the wisdom they lacked. If they didn’t, at least they might be amused by the humanity of the portly man’s admission. With a practiced hand he scooped up a bit of camembert and spread it over the cracker, then opened wide and placed it in his mouth with indulgent, tantalizing slowness. The loud, pleasing crunch…the one-of-a-kind flavor…the timeless combination of cheese and cracker, given new life by the flavors of a true artisan…he made sure the petitioners could see just how genuine his enjoyment was.

“Mm. Mm. Mmm. That is some fine cuisine, if I do say so myself. Fit for a king, but accessible and affordable to all.” With a smile, he pushed the cheese and crackers to the other side of the table, then gave his customers a wink. “But don’t you worry, ‘cause this one is on the house.”

That guarantee, backed by the sights, sounds, and smells of preeminent quality, was all the people needed. They crowded together like ducks in a pond to get whatever measure of food they could, some foregoing the cheese knife to scrape camembert onto crackers with their bare, filthy hands. The sight made Gru’s skin crawl, but he told himself that the cheese wasn’t his anymore. A necessary write-off. At least he had plenty more crackers, and he didn’t expend any apples despite them being the accompaniment of choice for camembert. At the same time, one cheese was hardly a feast. This wouldn’t fulfill these people so much as it would taunt them. All too soon, the wonderment and joy of flavors they never would have imagined turned to disappointment as they realized that was all. They wanted more, so Gru would provide.

“And there’s plenty more where that came from,” he told them. “Sadly, only the first one’s free. My supplies are very limited, you know. If you’ve got the coin, then they’re yours. Of course, nobody deserves to go hungry. If your pocketbook’s a little light today, we could cut a deal. Just sign a little paper showing you agree to pay me back, or work off the debt, and you’re good to go.” He crossed his arms. “Not that I have any work currently, mind. It’ll be on an on-call basis, once we reach…” He looked around the Emerald Forest. “...Greener pastures. Ironic, I know.”

Gru and the loggers made arrangements, not sweating the details but getting the food into the customers’ hands as quickly as possible. The details of repayment timeline and work conditions he left nebulous while assuaging nerves as much as possible. Toward the end of the negotiation, however, something strange happened. A riotous noise, a light across the sky above the forest canopy, and finally a tremendous impact. Stunned into silence by the unexpected turn of events despite his distance from the impact site, Gru swallowed and licked his dry lips. He turned to see a gang of rats already at his side with Reggie and Rick in the lead, awaiting orders. “Find out what happened. Now.” With a chorus of affirmative squeaks, the horde raced off into the underbrush, relying on speed, smarts, and safety in numbers. Any Pilgrim with half a brain would know that such a swarm belonged to Gru, and wasn’t to be messed with, but if they ran into someone -or something- not from the Caravan, things could get risky. Once picked up, the scents of Gadri Abzan and Madame Morvanne would help them zero in on their destination.

World of Light

Sector 04, Veles

Level 6 Goldlewis (98/60) Level 4 Sandalphon (63/40)
Karin’s @Zoey Boey, Blazermate, Roland, and Susie’s @Archmage MC, Geralt and Zenkichi’s @Multi_Media_Man
Word Count: 2654

Denied the vengeance that had been her sole obsession during the last twenty years, Jena had given in to desperation. Even if it meant becoming something that could never be allowed to live in the better world she hoped to create through her actions, she was willing to seize every last drop of power in order to see her mission through. Yet now, with Consul Y spooked by the others and provoked into taking action, he’d made the executive decision to flee. The sudden departure of its target left Jena Apotheosis little more than an unchained beast, mindless and directionless. Sandalphon doubted that the chimeric monstrosity possessed the mental faculties to understand her proclamation. In a way the fallen angel was pitiable, robbed of whatever sliver of pride or dignity might have remained now that Jena had thrown away the one thing she hadn’t already sacrificed during her long campaign: her humanity. Now all that remained was a hollow Still, however pitiable this creature might be, it possessed such incredible strength that the Seekers had no choice but to put it down.

Once they steeled themselves for one final climactic battle, the Seekers sprang into action, and none more so than Sandalphon herself. After all, as Heavenly Wings she was on the clock. While Sandalphon took stock of the incredible situation at a glance, she heard Blazermate announce that she’d built up kritz for whoever wanted them, and without hesitation she decided to take the medabot up on that offer. “No time to waste,” she announced, reaching out and grabbing the metal medic around her narrow middle. She tucked Blazermate under her arm like a big blue football, then flapped her wings to jump up from the slab with the others to a smaller chunk of building floating overhead, where she crouched down with muscles tensed. “Let’s put our best foot forward.”

Sandalphon sprang forward as if fired from a cannon, jumping with such strength that the chunk she’d left behind flew backward, spinning wildly. Her huge body hurtled through the air, taking wing at high speeds to close in on Jena Apotheosis as fast as possible. The fallen angel had already begun to attack after all. With a wave of one disjointed hand it flung a handful of huge fireballs into the air to blaze through the night sky in an arc and fall like meteors on the Seekers’ starting position. With its other arm Apotheosis conjured a spray of gigantic icicle flechettes that threatened to skewer anyone unfortunate enough to be hit. Zenkichi, Goldlewis, Geralt, and Karin all scattered to start their approach. The monster’s elemental onslaughts flew a lot faster -and did a lot more damage- than Susie’s missiles; both she and Roland quickly found that there was no such thing as a safe distance in this fight as they got punished for standing still.

Of course, the melee fighters making their way toward Apotheosis didn’t get it any easier. They needed to make their way across a series of floating, irregularly-shaped platforms separated by death drops on all sides, all the while hounded by protolegions. Sandalphon’s plan was to make sure the fallen angel couldn’t blindside her teammates with miniature natural disasters while they closed the distance and chewed through the protolegions. “I will cover your advance,” she told them succinctly. Sure enough, Apotheosis had already noticed Heavenly Wings speeding its way, a bright star of divine gold piercing the chimeric aurora staining the night purple. It turned its full attention on her, unleashing a torrent of ice lances to impale the archangel midair. Flying headfirst, Sandalphon swerved left and right, inverted herself, and even performed a barrel roll to avoid the projectiles, and after just a couple seconds she’d nearly crossed the airborne battlefield. As the ice stream tapered off, Apotheosis brought up its left hand blazing with fire. Sandalphon let go of Blazermate, forcing her to take flight for herself, then conjured a digital screen in front of herself and began to type. A wall of divine golden energy appeared in front of her just in time to intercept a scatterblast of giant fireballs, and once they’d all detonated, the archangel immediately slammed her palm on her screen to launch the wall forward and strike her target head-on, staggering her for just a moment.

“Administer kritz now.” She pumped her wings and flew forward, empowered by Blazermate’s kritz. Swooping in, she delivered an almighty flash kick to the imprisoned torso’s head, bending the monster’s neck backward. Apotheosis howled, bringing both arms together for a gigantic clap, but Sandalphon managed to beat her wings and fly upward in the nick of time. “Optimal range confirmed.” Once floating overhead, she cast Celestial Castling, creating an array of screens around her that she tapped as fast as possible. With each impact, a divine star above her grew bigger and bigger, until with a final screen slam it burst in a shower of seven celestial rays. On contact with Apotheosis, their searing cold radiance both scoured its flesh and inflicted Frostbite and Flashburn to deal extra damage over time.

It reeled, and Sandalphon nodded her approval, hoping that her strategy would give the others the chance they needed to get close. For her part, however, her time was up. In a burst of light the archangel turned back into her human form, grabbing her halo the moment it appeared to avoid entering freefall. That left her in the precarious position of floating directly above Apotheosis with negligible defense and health, little more than a fly waiting to be swatted by the fallen angel’s hands. Or at least, it would have if not for a specific perk of being the Angel of Information. Sandalphon warped all the way back to Roland and Susie in a blink, where she brought out her staff and healed them without missing a beat with a fresh charge of Angelic Praise. “Your efficiency at this range is suboptimal,” she told them. “I recommend getting closer.” Then she used a combination of Vault to get up to a floating slab where she could comfortably survey the battlefield and provide aid. “Overwatch established,” she informed everyone. “Fire support online.”

That was music to Goldlewis’ ears. Like the others he’d run and jumped into the action without delay, knowing that the chimera’s elemental downpour could rain down on him at any moment if he lingered too long. With Sandalphon and Blazermate taking point though, he, Zenkichi, and Geralt could take on the protolegion squads standing in their way, while Karin grappled around. It didn’t matter if these artificial chimeras came at them with claws, blades, fists, or bows–by now, the three men had their number. Strengthened by the adrenaline that coursed through his veins, Goldlewis splintered the fist protolegion’s oversized mitts with mighty Behemoth Typhoons, then pulverized its noggin with a triple headbutt. When more joined the fray farther on, Geralt helped even the odds, and Goldlewis happily took advantage of a bow protolegion staggered by a bomber to shove it off the platform with a shoulder barge. Once the trio bulldozed the protolegions, it wasn’t much further until they reached the slab closest to Apotheosis itself, bathed in the holy light of Sandalphon’s Celestial Castling. After another moment everyone was finally where they needed to be, and the fight was well and truly on.

Apotheosis brought its huge hands down on the platform again and again, trying to squash the bugs that dared to bite at its massive silver body. Not agile enough to evade the blows, Goldlewis resorted to blocking them, and though they demanded enough Faultless Defense to chew through his tension, he managed to stand tall and stay close. Each battering barrage took enough out of Apotheosis that the offending arm ended up resting on the slab for up to six seconds at a time, giving everyone the chance to dig in as long as they stayed on their toes. While Goldlewis couldn’t juggle the arms, he could still combo them, and with Sandalphon taking potshots from afar at the imprisoned torso everyone got a decent chance to deal damage whenever the monster eased up for a moment. Apotheosis wasn’t about to take this lying down, though. It spread both arms to either side of the platform, then brought them together in another massive clap of fire and ice. Where blue and red met, purple lightning erupted, so while Goldlewis double jumped to dodge the initial blow, the detonation a brief moment later caught him and knocked him down.

As the veteran rolled to his feet, he saw the fallen angel preparing another assault. It grabbed hold of the slab with one hand on either side, holding it like a massive pan, then brought the imprisoned torso close. Part of him wanted to run up and start pummeling, but common sense prevailed. Why would the monster expose itself to attack, after all? One second later, he got his answer as the torso opened up to unleash a flood of purple projectiles. On contact they called down purple lightning, bathing the slab in a deluge of electricity. Goldlewis hung back where the shots would be most spread out and blocked, taking the chip damage while Apotheosis floated away again. Roaring, the chimera lifted up its right arm and brought it down in a withering punch, strong enough to smash through the ground let alone anyone standing there. This was a chance to hit it at least, and Goldlewis didn’t plan to let it pass him by. He brought out Skyfish and peppered the huge arm with bullets. “Get a load o’ this!” His fusillade just as Apotheosis withdrew its limb, leaving a hole in the slab that an unwary Seeker could fall through.

“Watch your footing,” Sandalphon advised everyone. “Look before you dodge to avoid falling through. And Angelic Praise is charged again, so call me if you need me.”

Goldlewis made a mental note of the hole, but his eyes were on the fallen angel as it made its next move. It lifted its left hand over the slab as its blazed with flame, then swept across to immolate the entire front half of the battlefield. He backdashed out of danger, then watched as the fire in the chimera’s palm reached a fever pitch. It brought its hand down on the right side of the slab, creating a web of fiery cracks on impact. The veteran’s eyebrows went up, and he scrambled to run away. “Go, go-!” Not fast enough, he took the ensuing explosion in the back, throwing him to the ground face-first to the concrete.

“Ugh!” Goldlewis groaned, hoping the others fared better. “Consarn it all…” He picked himself up, prepared to call in Sandalphon for a heal, but what he saw next made him hesitate. Apotheosis brought its hands together in front of its torso, its palms facing one another, and began to collect energy between them. A vivid pink nova welled up at a terrifying pace, and every nerve in his body screamed for him to get the hell out of there. But where could he go? Gritting his teeth, he brought out Skyfish again, trained it on the epicenter, and held down the trigger. But with his Security Level only partially refilled since last time, he didn’t have enough bullets to do the job. “Aw, hell-”

Apotheosis blasted out a gigantic purple energy beam, obliterating the slab everyone was standing on and sending them flying in different directions. Caught up in the reduced gravity, Goldlewis tumbled through the air until he started to fall faster again, at which point he and his coffin fell onto a small floating chunk. The veteran landed painfully on his back and bounced off into the open air. “DAMN IIIIIIIIT!” Right on cue, the lid of his coffin flew open and the long arm of his UMA reached out to snatch him by the wrist. It yanked him back to safety, and he landed with a roll, breathing heavily as he looked around.

Everyone who didn’t get off the main slab in time got hurled away like he did. While both of the fallen angel’s arms sported red cracks thanks to the team’s efforts, it still had plenty of fight left in it. Luckily there were plenty more platforms floating around, even more than before it seemed. Goldlewis realized that the Seekers weren’t the only ones caught up in this mess. Blue-coated, body-armored Neuron officers could be seen fighting Reunion members in their masks, hoods, and dark, dull overcoats, so embroiled in their own conflict that they barely seemed to have noticed that they’d been caught up in the chimera’s gravitational anomaly. There was even a third faction in the midst, its soldiers clad in militaristic dark gray and wielding rifles or polearms, probably a local Veles security force. The sight of it all prompted Goldlewis to let out a gasping, humorless laugh of astonishment. If that didn’t perfectly encapsulate the tragedy of the World of Light, nothing would. Is Midgar really that hopeless?

Sandalphon’s voice then reached him, as if in response. “Alert, bogey approaching from the Shinra Building.” The archangel paused briefly, consulting her databank via a holographic screen with incredible speed. “It’s Peace Preservation’s AH12:HC Helicopter, designation ‘Alpha’.”

Goldlewis looked toward the omnipresent Shinra Building, and his mouth went dry. “What…in…tarnation!?” Technically speaking, sure, it was a helicopter. But that word didn’t do this ironclad death machine justice. If its cockpit was the size of a normal chopper’s, then Alpha was as long as nine choppers laid end to end, and was five or six stories tall, at least. It featured two side-mounted ball turrets with four cannons apiece, and a gigantic pair of underslung quad missile launchers. As stupid huge as its twin rotors were, it just didn’t seem plausible that they were enough to keep this monstrosity airborne. Inside the cockpit, standing on either side of the pilot’s enormous control setup, were Consul Y and a blonde man in a white trench coat.

“Did you fools think I was finished here?” The Consul’s voice resounded, projected by external loudspeakers.

Sandalphon narrowed her eyes. “It’s Shinra. Rufus Shinra, the president’s son. It seems that the leader of General Affairs has come to deal with Jena personally.” As she and the others watched, Alpha’s ball turrets opened fire, hammering Apotheosis in the back with a fusillade of huge explosive slugs. Screaming, the monster turned and held up its palm to fire a purple laser at its attacker. The helicopter stopped shooting and fired its lateral thrusters to boost sideways and evade the blast, which flew off into the night sky. “Our intercession is no longer necessary to ensure Jena’s demise. I recommend a full retreat.”

“I hear ya,” Goldlewis replied, finding his voice after a handful of missiles destroyed one of the chimera’s arms. “But where the hell do we go!?”

He was surprised to hear who spoke next. “Down here!” A bright green electric flash from Rei allowed him to spot Giovanna on a much lower floating slab, near what remained of the Neuron helipad. “There’s still a police chopper down here. Penance is getting it spooled up. Get down here in one piece and we can all get the hell out of dodge!”

Goldlewis took a deep breath, looking back toward the fight between Apotheosis and Alpha, far too close for comfort. A phrase came to mind, and though he couldn’t remember who said it before, it felt truer now than it had ever been. “They deserve one another,” he grumbled. Then he hoisted his coffin up and mustered all the energy he had left for one final gauntlet in order to make his escape.

A Comfortable Distance

Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Sakura’s @Zoey Boey, Pit’s @Yankee, Luka

Now that the infiltration team had reached Arahabaki, the hard part was over, at least for today. Knowing -or at least really hoping- that no more troubles lay between him and a good night’s rest, Luka allowed himself a couple long, deep breaths for the first time in a while. It had been nonstop stress since he and the other psionics met the Seekers at Beacon Mental Hospital, whether in the form of action or just severe tension. Compared to sneaking around that horrible ghost in the haunted cafeteria, and seeing Yuito’s soul sucked out of his body, the security guards around the Shinra Building were nothing. Still, Luka was glad to have it all behind him. All he and the others needed to do was wait quietly for Midna to set up the all-important portal so that they could get out, and so that tomorrow everyone could get in.

Of course, not everyone got the memo about the ‘quietly’ part.

In a fit of happy-go-lucky playfulness, Sakura tested to see if her voice would echo in this vast open space. Sure enough, it did, and it also got the attention of the automated security system. Luckily, the team didn’t need to stick around and see what happened next. As discreetly as they could, everyone made a beeline for Midna’s portal so that the Twilight Princess could help them through her dark dimension. In the moments before he left, Luka took one more good look at the otherworldly area, his expression almost wistful. If the collective hypothesis was correct, Karen was probably still somewhere deep within this place. Just what did he have planned for Arahabaki…for Midgar? Unfortunately, his days of knowing what his older brother was thinking were long behind him. “Karen…what’s going on?”

Tomorrow morning, maybe, he’d get his answer.

After a little interdimensional travel, Luka and the others left the overwarm, uncomfortably tingly atmosphere of Arahabaki behind, exchanged for the stoic, mundane silence of an unfamiliar business office. Like any workplace, the S.O.U. headquarters possessed a certain liminal quality when entered at night, long after its intended hours of operation had ended and the employees all went home, leaving the office quiet, somber, and still. For his part, Luka was incredibly relieved to be somewhere safe and peaceful at last. For a moment he was still a little tense, as if half-expecting this to be some sort of ruse that ended in an ambush, but when he went to the window and peered through the shutters to see the monolithic Shinra Building comfortably far away, he allowed himself to relax at last.

“Haaaaah…” he breathed, setting down his hammer. “Seeing as this is your base, I almost feel like an intruder. I am, after all, simply a random soldier. One face plucked out of the crowd and into the limelight. Just like in those tunnels, I’ve stumbled into something much bigger than myself once again. How small my world must have been, just the day before yesterday.” He looked over at the others, a grateful smile on his face. “While unfortunate circumstances brought us together, I count myself fortunate to have met and fought alongside you all. Thank you for having me.”

Midna reported no activity from her allies, so for the moment it looked like the four would be left to their home devices. Though never intended as a residence, the office still bore traces of the accommodations made for the Seekers on their first night in Midgar. While Midna tidied up, Luka lightened his own load. He removed his jacket, tie, and collared shirt, all of which turned out to be weighed clothing if anyone paid them any attention. Despite the fatigue he’d accumulated throughout the day, shedding that weight made Luka feel as light as a feather. Clad in a simple t-shirt and shorts, he sat until Midna reappeared to ask if everyone wanted a break. She mentioned going up to a mountain, presumably using another portal, and not just any mountain either. “Split Mountain?” Luka said aloud, his eyebrows raised. That was, of course, the distant impossibility he’d dreamed of visiting someday, should his duties in Midgar ever actually come to an end. And now of all times, his dream could become a reality, just like that? After all the impossible things that had happened today…sure, why not? After Sakura agreed, he did too, his excitement evident both on his face and in his gentle voice. “I’d love to!”

And so it was. One portal later, Luka stood atop a mountain of unimaginable size, his mouth ajar as he silently took in the most breathtaking view of his life. He could see for what must be hundreds of miles, from the range of lesser mountains bordering the Valley of Ruin to the west all across the trackless desert to the illimitable eastern sea. Scattered across the desert were the pinprick lights of countless tiny settlements, as well as a couple much larger cities, including the cream of the eastern sands Al Mamoon. New hanging rails were under construction by FeeCo, each section practically a metal suspension bridge in order to hold up the behemoths that were the enterprising company’s monstrous engines, but to Luka they might as well be ants marching across the ants in single file. He could see pyramids, oases, rocky foothills, canyons that must have been a gorgeously vivid red in the sunlight, and farther up the mountain, coniferous trees and snowy reaches. Strange that the temperature up here was so pleasant, when he could see what must be bitterly cold snowfields and crags beneath him. There was plenty of life up here to enjoy it too, between the reptiles, penguins, and animate balloons. Nothing astounded him more than the serpentine colossus Phalanx, of course–save for the revelation that at some point, the Seekers had made it their friend.

For a while Luka just absorbed it all, marveling at the breadth and wonders of the world beyond the Dystopiascape’s borders. When Midna prompted him to look, he realized he couldn’t even see Midgar across the western border range despite the myriad lights of the industrial metropolis, thanks to the thick cloud cover. He was glad that the skies over the desert were clear tonight. When Midna and Sakura turned their eyes towards space, he turned his toward the mountain’s peak, amazed that he and the others weren’t even that close to the summit despite their staggering altitude. He stared into the brilliant, almost heavenly light shining from that great cleft as it loomed over the ring of mountaintops that once completely enclosed Jondo, the inverted bell whose final clang even he heard the week prior. He opened his mouth to ask the others what was up there, seeing as they’d been here before and all, but after a moment he closed his mouth again. Somehow, the answer seemed too important to be handed out willy-nilly like this, even if the others knew. If he wanted to know, Luka figured he’d need to make the journey himself.

For a while longer Luka remained quiet, drinking in the peaceful majesty of the night.

The Under - Mercy Dreams

Level 13 Ms Fortune (21/130)
The Koopa Troop’s @DracoLunaris, Primrose and Therion’s @Yankee, Sectonia’s @Archmage MC, Ganondorf’s @Double, Jesse’s @Zoey Boey, Artorias and Osvalds’ @Dark Cloud, Nocturne’s @Grimnir
Word Count: 3144

As her breathing finally evened out and her pulse slowed back down from her brief but terrifying run-in with the white tiger, Nadia made her way back toward the open area of Mercy Dreams, where she laid hands on and peered over the first wrought-iron railing she could find. She half-expected to look down and see the creepy prison complex overrun with a rabid throng of those awful little chop goblins, but to her surprise she found the new threat already under control. Of course, she knew she shouldn’t be surprised that Jesse handled a dangerous and anomalous object like the goblin-generating chest with professional speed and efficiency, not to mention brutality. Nadia watched the accursed trove slowly float up toward the first layer’s ceiling thanks to its attached balloons, spitting out two goblins a second to plummet, wailing, all the way down to Mercy Dreams’ fifth layer and a near-instant demise. Some hit the large central walkway, creating a mess that Nadia consciously averted her gaze from, while others plopped straight into the alarmingly bright green acid pools that hissed and sputtered to either side. A couple even hit the hulking, misshapen monstrosities that patrolled that bottommost layer, which did not go any better for them, to say the least.

“AaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaa_aaaaaaaa...” Sploosh.

“EeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeee_eeeeeeee...” Splat.

“WhaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaa_aaaaaaaa...” Plop.

Nadia took a deep breath to steady herself. The little freaks’ howls didn’t exactly make for pleasant ambiance, so the sooner she managed to tune it out, the better. Without the luxury of time, Jesse -pragmatic as ever- had made the smart choice, but that didn’t mean she had to like it. Well, that was one problem solved, at least. Over on the other side of the second layer, Sectonia was mopping up the last few stragglers still running rampant around the room the chained chest came from. “Good thing I didn’t open that stupid thing,” the feral muttered. Once the big bug finished she made her way over to the other unusual-looking room on the second layer, followed by her retinue of antlions and disappeared inside. The flashy new white elements and pink crystals on Sectonia’s attire did not escape her notice. Did she already fuse with something, too? Nadia smirked. “She is a gem.”

For another few moments she kept an eye out, her tails flicking idly as she searched Mercy Dreams for any sign of her other allies. It looked like the Bowser Bunch went into the same doorway that Ganondorf and Jesse exited from, curious about how they’d managed to rejoin the team maybe. Predictably, she could already hear a serious ruckus coming from inside. If they needed help they could use the linkpearls, but Nadia assumed they’d be fine. That kind of assurance was just one perk of rolling in a permanent four-person squad, complete with healers. Now that she thought about it, Nadia figured she could probably learn from their example and quit exploring this dangerous, unknown place all on her own. Not with Ganondorf though, since she could see the warlord going off by himself as if he knew where he were going, interspersed with intermittent pauses as if to zero in on something only he could hear. Nadia’s brows went up as she wondered whether or not the Dorf might have someone the same way she had Minette. Nah, she decided after a moment. I’ll be dead and buried before that guy makes a friend.

That was all she could gather for now, as Nadia could find neither hide nor hair of anyone else. The bottom line was that nobody had delved all the way down to the depths of Mercy Dreams yet, which as the most tightly-guarded and hard-to-escape spot in the prison was also the most likely spot for its most dangerous captive to lay in wait. If that was the case, it might as well be Ms. Fortune who blazed the trail. Nadia pushed off the railing and retraced her steps, jogging quickly through the second layer. She adjusted quickly to the feeling of her hair’s weight behind her, as well as her new jacket. This getup was a little more restrictive than she was used to, but having secondary movement on her person as she traveled offered its own benefits. She recovered and holstered her bait launcher, then descended to the third layer, where she perked up her ears. No shuffling or gurgling meant that the others might have cleared out all the mind flayers, which suited her just fine.

As Nadia made her way through the third layer, trotting along at a brisk pace in search of the staircase down to the fourth, she stumbled on another irregular door set halfway down one of the hallways. It appeared to be wood rather than metal, and its hinges whined when she gently pushed it open. After hesitating for a moment, Nadia resolved to turn tails the minute she spotted anything spooky, and forged onward. The boarded floor of the dark hallway beyond creaked beneath her careful footsteps as she made her way toward a dim green light. She climbed up a small set of stairs and found herself in what looked like the interior of a log cabin, lit only by glowing inscriptions in a language she didn’t know, written vertically in spiky, curved characters that looked a little like antlers. In the center of the room lay an octagonal shape covered in symbols, with four pedestals atop it in the cardinal directions, all topped by dull green orbs. On the other side was an empty doorway into a small, dark room.

Her keen ears picked up the faint sound of flowing water coming from below, and she hesitated to step on the platform. Instead she went around it toward the podium northwest of the platform, which featured some sort of wheel. Eyes narrowed, she climbed up onto and crouched atop the podium, then put her hands on the wheel. When she turned it, some sort of mechanism disengaged and the central platform dropped suddenly, splashing down onto a murky black waterway before speeding out of sight, a raft on a subterranean river. Nadia blinked, confused. Was this some sort of emergency escape route? Either way, avoiding the trap made her pretty pleased with herself, and with a little extra pep in her step she made her way into the next room.

This one was mostly metal, cylindrical in shape. In it stood a central tower with two paddles jutting out at odd angles, each with a dark green button like the ones on the pedestals. Nadia saw a door on the other end of the room, but three irregular metal rings blocked it, one of them only partially. She tried pushing on one paddle, then the other, then in both directions, but none would budge. The door lacked a handle, and try as she might, the feral couldn’t see anything else in this little chamber to work with. “Ugh, must be missing something,” she groaned, reaching for her belt. “Gotta have some kind of light in here, right?” Her utility belt contained various weapons, the Ripened Heart, and even that magic jug of lemonade, which she gulped down for a little refreshment. “Kinda wish I kept that weird light right about now.” Only when she rummaged through her loot did she find something that glowed: the lumenite crystal she’d obtained from the Temple Guardian back in the hive.

She held it up, and instantly the green buttons on the totem’s paddles lit up in response. When the paddles turned, the lock rings in the room did too, sliding around Nadia with a smooth grinding sound. “Whuh? Oh, wait…it’s light!” Though alarmed for a moment, Nadia realized what was going on just a split second after the rings parted around the far door. It slid open and then closed again on its own, forcing Nadia to shine the crystal on one paddle or the other until they lined back up to open the door. She also noticed that the door she’d come in through had closed, probably the moment she’d first moved the rings out of alignment. “Hopefully there’s nothing in here I gotta run from…hehe…”

Feeling pretty smart but not that much more confident, Nadia stepped into the next room. It was a rounded wooden gallery of some kind, with three framed archways exhibiting fine paintings. All three depicted a lush green marsh with peaceful waters arranged before a background of night sky and distant mountains, but each artwork also had an eerie subject: an inhuman figure in loose, rustic attire, with long limbs and rounded heads that were featureless but for long antlers and glowing eyes. “Creepy,” Nadia murmured, glad for the gallery’s plentiful light. In addition to the overhead fixture, each recess had a green lantern or two. “Finally!” Nadia smiled. “No more bumbling around in the dark. I bet everyone’s gonna be thrilled.” She grabbed the lanterns two at a time, affixing them to her belt. It was a bit cumbersome, but they would stick around for long. She turned to go, only to stop as another grinding sound made her perk up her ear. When she turned to look, she saw the rightmost painting moving, sliding backward until it revealed a secret passage. “...Okay!” she said brightly, a big smile on her face. “Well, I’m kind of on a roll. What could possibly go wrong?”

Nadia stepped through the archway and found herself at the top of a narrow staircase that curved to the left, which she creaked down one step at a time. She could hear the crackle of a fire down there and see the green light it cast. When she rounded the corner at the base of the stairs, however, she gasped, a chill running down her spine that made her skin crawl and the hairs on her neck stand on end. It was another round room, with a green fire in its center just as she expected, except around it stood at least a dozen raised tables with nightmarish skeletons bound to their surfaces. Their withered green bones had digitigrade legs with two toes apiece, well-preserved antlers, and ghastly, fleshless faces. All had their dead fingers curved around some sort of metal artifact facing the fire in the center, in which similar licks of green flame blazed. If the upstairs room had been a gallery of art, this one was a gallery of corpses.

“The hell is this?” Nadia whispered, quiet enough that she didn’t disturb the dead. “A hidden jail?” Regardless, she didn’t plan to stick around and find out. There were neither riches nor mask fragments here, just a small piece of lumber on the ground by the fire. At first she thought it was firewood, but on second glance it looked like some kind of statue, so with her eyes on the cadavers she gingerly picked it up. Nothing sprang out at her, so she took a good look. It was a carving of a man with the head and hooves of a horse, holding something in his hands. A tablet, maybe? The statuette had an uncanny sense of purpose to her, and after thinking for a moment Nadia stuffed it into a belt pouch.

Then she beat it, hurrying back the way she came with her new lanterns. It took a little doing with all the extra light, but she made her way back through the lock room, past the hole in the ground, and back out into Mercy Dreams proper. There she took a deep breath, trying to put those nightmarish faces out of mind. “Uh, Ms. Fortune here,” she said, tapping her linkpearl. “I found five lanterns, so if you want a light, gimme a ring! Gotta do a good ‘tern daily, after all~”

Kamek delivered his own report a moment later, which confirmed that neither of the hidden rooms on the third layer contained anything useful. Well, anything obviously useful, at least. Tentacles, centipedes, and poison, huh? I’ll pass. “I’ll take ten tickles if you have any of those. I could use a good laugh, nyeheh.” Idly Nadia wondered if her voice sounded any different after that fusion. She couldn’t really tell.

Therion’s voice issued from the linkpearl next, and Nadia was glad to hear it. She hadn’t seen her fellow thief since everyone arrived in Mercy Dreams, but then again, he was probably the better burglar between the two of them. He said that he and Primrose had reached the fourth level, where they found something awful. Sounds like what I found, she thought grimly. ‘Nightmare’ really described this whole place, between its latent horror and its surreal atmosphere. Nadia thought about the tiger woman in her cell, entranced by visions of some other place. A dream, maybe? Well, it didn’t matter. If the others had reached the fourth floor, she knew she needed to get a move on.

She hustled the rest of the way across the third layer and down the stairs to the fourth. Near the bottom, she slowed up again, her ears picking up unfamiliar noises. Metal creaking, sharp footsteps, and a tittering laughter as if through a snotty woman’s nose. More than one source, it sounded like. Suddenly Nadia remembered that paper butterfly she’d unraveled before, the one describing the masked Irithyll Jailer. She hurriedly set down her lanterns, then brought out and reread the paper, internalizing the listed weaknesses. Pierce, electric… She drew Athame from her belt. Can do.

Right on time, she heard one of the illuminators approaching. An idea in mind, she took a deep breath, crouched down, and put on a smile with her dagger in hand. “I’ll take a stab at it.” After a moment she sprang from her hiding place and faced the robed jailer, a red-hot branding iron in one hand and a lantern upheld in the other. At that exact moment, the lantern began to pulse blood red, and a horrible sensation shot through Nadia’s veins, as if that horrible light was burning away her very essence. It wasn’t painful, necessarily, but it was awful. By that time, though, the feral was already in motion. She sprinted forward, then used Charge, transforming into a tiger of yellow lightning that struck the illuminator like a bolt from the blue. The electricity coalesced behind it, and Nadia turned to use Battery by driving Athame into the monster’s back with vicious strength, once, twice, each piercing blow a critical hit thanks to the Charge used beforehand. Its body went limp, the lantern falling from its grasp to shatter on the floor, but Nadia couldn’t celebrate just yet.

Another lantern flared up about a hundred feet farther down the hallway, a cruel crucible that melted away the feral’s very being. She turned, her teeth gritted, and saw just how far the offending illuminator was away from her. With a snarl she kicked the first one off her blade and flipped the dagger in her hand. “Fine, you’re necks in line.” Nadia took off like a bullet, sprinting as fast as she could. The sound of her own heartbeat pulsed in her ears. As she ran, she unwittingly activated Fluffy Soft, transforming her legs into those of a white tiger’s from the thigh down. Even as the lantern’s baleful glare whittled down her max health, the burst of speed let her close the distance. “MrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrAOW!” At the last moment, Nadia went low with Cat Slide, low-profiling the illuminator’s smoldering iron and slicing into its leg with Athame as she slipped past. It stumbled forward, its defense reduced, and Nadia sprang to her feet to finish it off. To its credit, the illuminator recovered much faster than she expected. As it ran toward her, giggling, Nadia hurled her dagger at its lantern in the hopes that destroying it would light her foe on fire, but it clanged off and the illuminator struck her with its iron.

Instantly the fiery weapon reacted with her innate hydro to cause Vaporize, knocking her down in a burst of steam. That hurt, way worse than it should have, and for a moment Nadia writhed on the ground. As the illuminator stepped forward, she pulled the Ripened Heart from her belt for a quick heal, only for the heart to have no effect whatsoever. “What the, no healing?” Nadia gave the illuminator a look of disbelief. “For me, that’s so not on-brand!”

Her enemy lunged, trying to stamp Nadia with its iron again. She rolled out of the way and jumped to her feet, cracking her head and rolling her shoulders. The lantern still shone, but she couldn’t feel anything any more. Maybe it couldn’t bring her any lower? Well, if any strike could kill her, that made sense. “So I just can’t get hit, is that all?” She grinned at the masked jailer. “No sweat.” The illuminator lunged, stabbing with its iron again and again. Nadia ducked and dodged out of the way, then pulled off her own hand and sprayed blood from the stump to splash her foe’s mask and render it blind. Then, as it flailed, she stepped back to create a Hydro Mimic in a surge of blood. From the visceral torrent appeared a Sakura Mimic that leaped forward with Shunpukyaku, striking the jailer with her twirling gale kick even as the branding iron blasted it into steam. The cost of copycats scaled down with Nadia’s health, after all, and she wouldn’t die if mimic took the hit. With the jailer off-balance, it was wide open for a lunging sword thrust from a Geralt Mimic, leaving it doubled over for an Ace Mimic to leap into the air and bring down the house with a meteoric shield plunge.

The ensuing bloody impact extinguished the lantern, and as the illuminator tried to rise, Nadia leaped forward. “Thought you had me?” Her right arm morphed into a white tiger’s, her claws like miniature swordblades gleaming with New Moon light. “Well, here’s my escape claws!” With the illuminator’s defense reduced by sixty percent, she sliced it into ribbons with a single mighty swing.

In the aftermath of the battle, Nadia gathered up her equipment and spent blood. Only when her max health began to return did she start feeling the pain, as her current health remained the same. Luckily, the brand faded as well, allowing the feral to restore herself completely with the Ripened Heart. “Ahhh…” she sighed, closer to tears than she would have liked. “Damn jailers…so Irith-ill-mannered.”

Hopefully there were no more where they came from.

World of Light

Okay, doing that sounds fine then. I'll look forward to what you come up with.

World of Light

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

So, I wanna join, but question: Does my character's personality and goals have to be at least a bit fleshed out by the game they're from's narrative, or can I just use a player character which is basically the audience surrogate in the game they're from, and go from there?

Because, right now, all the characters in my mind that I wanna play as are:

Disney's Enchanted Journey's Princess of Gentlehaven,

and

Wizard101's "Young Wizard" and Pirate101's "Young Pirate".

It's okay if I can't, I'm just wondering! :)

@Dragonfly 9

Hey there, I'm glad you're interested, and I'd be happy to have you. Having a concrete personality at least is a must-have, although in the past we've had players assign create-a-characters personalities of their own, so that's an option. Our characters are not just mindless combat machines after all, we need to be able to play off one another and the elements we encounter in the world. I'm not too familiar with the games you mentioned, but keep in mind that any games with Disney characters that originate from a medium other than a game are off-limits. If those games have strictly original characters made by Disney's game division or whatever, that's fine.

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Lewa

With the wind at his back, Lewa got the extra burst of speed he needed to land a solid blow on his buffeted foe. As it shattered the man’s poise and sent him flying backward into the foliage, that blast of compressed air made it clear -and in no uncertain terms- that despite his lack of experience, he wouldn’t be a pushover. Elated by the rush of satisfaction and renewed confidence, Lewa recovered and hoisted his axe up onto his shoulder in a heroic pose for the viewing pleasure of the stunned Raven Herald audience. Duels might not be his forte, but the toa of air knew how to leave an impression. Still, he didn’t plan to get too cocky. His opponent stirred at the base of tree trunk where he’d ended up, confirming that the fight wasn’t over just yet.

Though that concentrated airblast and the resulting arboreal impact hurt the man’s body, leaving a bevy of bruises and lacerations where his getup failed to negate or blunt the damage, it seemed to have hurt his pride even more. The blonde simmered like a pot seconds away from boiling over, a mixture of rage and disbelief accentuated with blood on his face. He wasn’t the only thing burning, though. While Lewa had noticed the strange energy dancing across his adversary’s weapon during the fight so far, he hadn’t thought anything of it. It was only natural that a warrior with elemental powers of some stripe would use them to strengthen his or her weapons. Igniting his flame-shaped blade was a favorite technique of Tahu’s for instance, and he used that blaze to great effect against rahi and bohrok alike.

As the man struggled to regain his feet, however, Lewa saw that strange energy not only engulf the weapon, but also spread over the Raven Herald’s flesh. Like wildfire racing through the scrubland where jungled Le-wahi bordered the volcanic wastes of Ta-wahi, threatening to rage out of control and consume everything in its wake if not stopped by the proper precautions. At the sight of it, Lewa couldn’t help but be concerned, even if his opponent didn’t seem to be. “Your weapon-tool,” he warned. “It’s light-burning you. Eating you.” Even as he spoke, he felt a sense of uselessness, fairly certain that his words were falling on deaf ears. His time around Tahu had taught him more than the ins and outs of combat; he’d also learned well his brother’s fiery temper and pride, a sharp contrast against his own more easygoing persona, not to mention the cold calculation of their brother Kopaku. He glanced around toward the uproar of the other fights. It seemed like things were going in his team’s favor. “You should retreat. No shame-regret in running to live another day.”

In the probably case that the man didn’t listen, though, Lewa hefted his hatchet. He flourished it once, then grasped it with both hands. If his foe wanted to stand there and smolder, the toa didn’t mind taking the initiative to put him out. The toa would whirl his axe around like he did before, then on the third swung unleash the same whirlwind that unseated the rider earlier to bear down on the Raven Heralds like a miniature hurricane. It probably wouldn’t do more than knock them down or toss them back, but hopefully it would convince them to flee.